Below are the heart-wrenching Victim Impact Statements made by Randall and Madison Kaplan. Randall states he feared being paralyzed and that he believed he might die. It took three people to get Justin off of him after three minutes of blows to the head. This is a devastating account of a sad and violent incident. It’s tough to read. Here are the statements from Randall & his wife.
Randall Kaplan – Victim Impact Statement
Your honor, I appreciate the opportunity to speak today and share my victim impact statement with the court. This is the most unsettling and uncomfortable statement I have given in my life, and I will try to be as composed as possible as I go through and describe the horrifically violent and unprovoked attack that left both me – and my wife – with very significant and permanent injuries.
As you indicated earlier today, just minutes after the most recent setting hearing and day we were last in the courtroom on February 26th, Mr. Gimelstob posted the following entry on his Facebook and Instagram pages:
“Media reports continue to misrepresent what happened in court today. I have never and will never engage in any settlement discussion which would require an admission of guilt. I maintain my innocence and will only consider a no contest plea. To that end, we will continue to pursue a fair and just settlement agreement. If that proves to be impossible l will fight the case to the end, confident that the truth will wholly vindicate me.”
On February 22nd, Mr. Gimelstob gave a video interview to TMZ stating that he was not a violent person – and in which he publicly declared attack never happened.
For more than five months – until today – Mr. Gimelstob’s blunt and very public refusals to accept responsibility for his actions was as alarming as they illuminating about his state of mind – in fact they have been shocking, appalling, and pathological.
I am going to start today by briefly talking about my former relationship with Mr. Gimelstob. After that I will discuss the details of attack, my injuries from the attack, my wife’s injuries from the attack, and how the attack has affected my life and the lives of my family.
Relationship
I first met Mr. Gimelstob in September 2008 at a mutual friend’s wedding in New York.
I had not spoken with him in more than five years – but on May 2nd of last year he called me six times, and also texted me asking me to call him. I didn’t answer his calls, and I didn’t return his text. I didn’t like him, and I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.
Eight days later, on May 10th, I was having dinner with my wife at a restaurant and when we walked in I saw a woman named Kris Royce who was a parent at my kids school – and who is also Mr. Gimelstob’s divorce lawyer. I went over to say hello to her, and when I did somebody I didn’t see sitting next to her tapped me on the shoulder and aggressively said, “What’s the matter – you don’t fucking call me back?”
I was surprised to see Mr. Gimelstob there – he was extremely agitated and angry when he saw me. He aggressively asked why I didn’t call him back, and I shrugged. Then he got in my face and aggressively said, “You’re either with the Gimelstobs or Sinnotts.” By this he was referring to the family of Cary Sinnott, with whom Mr. Gimelstob is getting divorced.
When I shrugged again with my hands by my shoulders – meaning I had nothing to say to him – he put his hand in my face and said “I’m going to fucking kick your ass and kill you.”
When I asked him if he had really just threatened me in front of his attorney, he said he had and said, “I’m rich and she’s the best attorney in the world and will get me out of anything.”
Halloween Attack
a. Nearly six months after threatening to kick my ass and kill me, Madison and I took our two-year old daughter Carter trick or treating for her first Halloween.
b. We were excited and Carter was excited. Carter had picked out a pilot outfit with her name on it and we had prepped her about Halloween and how she was going to get a lot of candy that night. We went to a local street called Homewood in Brentwood – it’s one of those safe Halloween neighborhood family destination spots, around a mile long, and is blocked off to traffic because thousands of people trick-or-treat there each year.
c. We met up with other families with their two-year olds, and after around an hour, Madison and I left our friends and their toddlers and headed to our car to keep Carter on her sleep schedule.
d. At 6:20 pm, I was pushing Carter in her stroller when I was hit with a sudden, tremendous force from behind. I never saw the ambush coming or had any warning it was about to come – I went flying to the ground face-first – unable to brace myself – while a very heavy body pounced and landed on top of me.
e. It hurt like hell and I was in complete shock.
f. I tried moving but my arms and legs were pinned to the ground, and almost immediately the person who ambushed me started punching the back of my head while screaming over and over again “You fucked with my family” and “I’m going to fucking kill you.”
g. The person was screaming it at the top of his lungs filled with rage – and I had no clue who it was.
h. I don’t know much about physical assaults, but I immediately thought of two things:
i. First, that my attacker had the wrong person; and ii. Second, that the attack would end quickly. I was wrong on both.
j. I was pinned to the ground – and couldn’t move – and was in total shock – and as soon as the blows to my skull began, I started screaming “HELP!” and then “CALL THE POLICE!”
k. But the punches kept coming, with tremendous force, and my attacker kept yelling “I’m going to fucking kill you!” over and over again.
l. It was beyond petrifying – I have never been so scared in my entire life. As the attack continued with no letup in sight, I thought my skull was going to crack open, and I wondered how many more punches I could take.
m. I tried moving many times as I screamed but was unable to move my arms or my legs because my attacker continued punching and beating the back of my head repeatedly – and I was trying my best to cover my head with my hands to protect it.
n. With my head pushed into the ground, I turned and screamed again for help. I was also shouting “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” over and over from the pain – which you have seen on the video my wife took at the start of the attack. But when I turned my head to scream, it exposed my face.
o. And when that happened, my attacker’s devastating and brutal punches went from the top and back of my skull to the sides of my face including my cheeks, forehead and ears as well as my back.
p. Early this morning, as a factor in deciding Mr. Gimelstob’s punishment, you stated that the attack was short. I respectfully disagree Your Honor the attack lasted three minutes.
q. During that time, I was punched at least 50 times but when you count it out 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . the actual number was likely over 100.
r. As the attack continued, I wondered if my skull was going to crack open or if he would punch the back of my neck and wondered if I was going to be paralyzed or if I would die and if I died would my two-year daughter and wife who were only a few feet away witness me being beat to death.
s. As his fist continued pounding into my head, I became dizzy, and thought I may pass out, and I thought of the San Francisco Giants fan who was beaten after a Dodgers game and was paralyzed for the rest of his life. I thought about a friend from the summer before who was sucker-punched, blacked out, hit his head on a sidewalk without breaking his fall and DIED.
t. I worried about my three teenage kids, and whether I was going to see them again, and whether I was going to see my family back in Detroit my mom had just turned 75 and my grandmother was going to turn 100 in two days.
u. Finally, as I was about to pass out, I heard some commotion and yelling and people screaming at my attacker, and then felt a small struggle. I realized that people had finally stepped in to pull my attacker off of me, who was still saying “I’m going to fucking kill you” while he pointed at me with eyes of a crazed lunatic.
Witnesses told me that it took three people to finally pull Mr. Gimelstob off of me, including a much older man who risked injury to himself by doing so.
w. But apparently the three-minute attack by this psychopath wasn’t enough. These three people who had pulled Mr. Gimelstob away had to keeping holding him back Ð he was trying to break free and come back after me and was still yelling “I’m going to fucking kill you!”
x. I can only assume that since he was screaming “I’m going fucking kill you” during the entire attack after jumping me and pinning me down and pounding on my head like a crazy lunatic in front of many young children that that’s exactly what he was trying to do.
i. If nobody had stopped him, and if he had continued beating my head like he wanted to, I may not be here today. I could be dead.
ii. If he had tackled me on the pavement instead of the grass something purely fortuitous 50-100 or more punches to a head getting smashed on concrete could have been fatal.
iii. The attack finally ended thanks to three courageous bystanders and as they pulled my attacker off of me, that was the first time I saw who it was Mr. Gimelstob a guy who had threatened to beat the shit out of me and kill me six months earlier at a restaurant in Brentwood and then tried to do it.
y. As these three good Samaritans pulled this thug off of me, and as he was trying to break free and attack me again a woman who had been standing there watching the entire attack from the beginning screamed a couple of times, “That’s enough Justin, Stop. They called the police we need to get out of here.” According to multiple witnesses, this was Justin’s girlfriend Austin Ruth who went trick or treating with Justin and his son that night and who watched the attack from start to finish.
z. Several witnesses I had never met before came up to me and asked me if I was ok, and one of the witnesses ran after Justin to take his picture. A minute later she came back frightened and out of breath she said that Justin was angry at having his picture taken and started after her for a moment before she ran back to me and the group gathered around me. According to what she told me that night, Mr. Gimelstob also tried to punch her.
i. Mr. Gimelstob was unsuccessful in assaulting her, but the woman did take a photo which is in the file which was taken at 6:31 pm.
aa. When this witness came back from taking his picture, she told me that Justin had just walked away and walking down the street and joined his group as if nothing had happened.
i. How is that? You jump somebody from behind like a coward, beat a defenseless man in front his wife and 2-year old and others on Halloween, try to kill him, and then you just walk away to get some candy with your son?
bb. And while most families ran away fearing for themselves– my wife and our two-year old daughter didn’t.
cc. We were pushing the stroller when I was ambushed, and my wife Madison watched her husband and Carter watched her helpless dad get savagely beaten from 10 feet away.
For four months, Mr. Gimelstob has slandered me in public telling an incredibly large number of people that I started the event, that it was a fight, and that get this that I provoked him by allegedly shouting to him 30 feet away that I’m glad his dad died – something that was absurd from the beginning. All of the sudden, as he has realized he is finally going to have to face consequences – and due to his desire to avoid the LAPD detective, my doctor, and the many witnesses describe the attack in detail – he’s all of the sudden admitting full responsibility??? I have an incredibly hard time believing that.
Now I’m going to talk about the devastating and irreversible effects and injuries that this violent attack has had on my life and my family’s lives.
a. That night Madison drove me home, and we waited 90 minutes for the police to arrive.
b. When we went home, Madison and I were in a state of shock. I was badly bruised and in a tremendous amount of physical pain – and also in a tremendous amount of emotional pain.
c. Madison was suffering too, as was our baby Carter – both of them were very upset and crying.
d. My three teenagers were out with their friends, and I called each of them separately and told them what had happened, and they each started crying hysterically as I told them I had been savagely beaten but was going to be ok. I didn’t know if I was going to be ok, but I didn’t want them to worry more than they needed to – and I wanted to call them before they heard about the attack from other people since many of their friends were trick or treating on Homewood where the attack happened.
e. While we waited for the police and cried – we also worried that this psychopath may come to my house and actually try to kill me since he screamed it during the entire attack.
f. The police finally came to my house, took statements from my wife and me, and left 30 minutes later.
g. I called my physician at home, who meticulously walked me through a serious of questions and protocols to determine whether I should go the ER for a CT scan. His questions were focused on whether I had any internal cranial bleeding he didn’t think I had a brain bleed based on my answers but gave me symptoms to look for during the night. Then he told me to come to his office the next morning.
h. My wife and I were worried about internal bleeding all night that night I had a panic attack that I might die in my sleep. My head was pounding, my face was sore, the top of my head was raw and felt as if somebody had taken a few layers off, and my ears were sore swollen and raw, making it impossible to sleep. My body was sore and bruised in many places.
i. My teenagers were at my ex-wife’s house that night they called me several times during the middle of the night extremely upset asking if they could come over at midnight just so they could see me and be with me.
j. I was in terrible shape Ð dizzy, bruised, swollen and didn’t want them to see me like this.
k. The attack had some serious consequences for them.
l. Carter woke up the next morning in her crib and started her morning by saying, “Daddy Daddy, help help, ouch ouch, police police” while making punching motions. She’s two years old. She could see my bruises all week, said “daddy’s hurt” and wanted to hug me every chance she could. The “daddy’s hurt” comments lasted for a while she would point to my swollen ears and say, “daddy’s ear hurts,” and would point to “daddy’s big boo-boo” the bruise on my leg that was there for more than six weeks.
m. My 15-year old son cried himself to sleep the night of the attack, which has had a profound effect on him. He hasn’t slept well since the attack. The attack and image of his dad being savagely beaten and being helpless and then seeing my injuries and my body has left him angry and depressed.
n. He asks me every few days what’s happening, and he like my daughters remain petrified of him. Since the attack, his schoolwork and grades have suffered significantly.
o. My twin 17-year old girls Arianna and Bianca started bawling when they saw me the day after the attack. They also couldn’t sleep well they were very upset for several weeks, and have also discussed the attack with therapists. They are completely traumatized about the attack and have asked me not to discuss with it with them because it’s too painful, because it makes them very sad, and because they remain fearful of him.
And as far as I’m concerned, this attack has been one of the worst if not THE worst thing that has ever happened to me physically and emotionally.
i. I have had a concussion which has lasted four and a half months Ð and which still hasn’t gone completely away.
ii. I get frequent headaches that often leave my head pounding for many hours a day Ð which it did nearly every day for the first month after the attack.
iii. I’m forgetful
1. When I went to see my doctor nine weeks ago, I couldn’t remember what building his office was in even though I’ve been seeing him for many years.
2. Six weeks ago, I forgot the code to the gate where I’ve lived for 20 years.
3. Four weeks ago, I forgot the sum of 6 x 7. 4.
My doctor has said this will go away but I’m anxious about it and worry that it won’t.
iv. For more than a month after the attack, my scalp had open wounds making it incredibly painful to it extremely painful to shower.
v. My ears were swollen, incredibly sore, and had open wounds on the cartilage, making it impossible to sleep on my sides which is the normal way I sleep and which also contributed to making showering incredibly painful.
vi. My cheek was badly bruised, making sleep even harder.
vii. My calf had a very dark and painful bruise for more than six weeks.
viii. Four and a half months later, my right shoulder is still incredibly sore, requiring an MRI and physical therapy. I still don’t have free range of motion my arm hurts when I move it above a certain height.
ix. I’ve been to therapy to deal with the effects of being the victim of a brutal attack.
1. I’ve been very sad.
2. I’ve been depressed.
3. I’ve had PTSD
I have relived the attack several hundred times – sometimes several times a day and I still have terrible dreams about it.
x. Even though my scalp and bruises have healed, I haven’t slept well since the attack.
- It’s left me anxious about whether he may attack me again.
2. It’s left me anxious about the pain and effects it has caused my kids.
3. It’s left me anxious about the irreparable damage he’s done to my wife.
4. I’ve been anxious about the many lies that Mr. Gimelstob has told in the aftermath of the attack – including that it never happened – causing me further pain.
5. Not only this, he’s been slandering me in public with many more of his absurd lies.
6. I’ve been anxious because he has a very long history of prior attacks – five attacks in four years. Many have been reported – he’s denied all of those as well – intimidating people from involving the police.
7. Because he keeps getting away with assaulting people – I’m anxious that will come back and kill me like he’s promised to do.
xi. The attack has also affected me at work.
1. It’s affected my ability to focus. 2. It’s affected my performance there.
3. It’s affected my work ethic – I often have to leave work early.
4. His slanderous lies have affected my reputation – I’ve had more than 50 people ask me about the “fight” that Mr. Gimelstob told everybody had occurred.
But as bad as these effects have been, nobody has suffered worse injuries or trauma than my wife Madison – who witnessed me being beaten and who watched this man pound away at my skull screaming “I’m going to fucking kill you” while I was trapped to the ground.
My wife was traumatized by the attack, and she cried every day from what she saw, and from worrying about me, and from worrying about Carter and the trauma our two-year old had witnessed.
i. This would be horrific for any wife and mom to watch with her baby by her side, but Madison was also newly pregnant.
ii. She didn’t sleep well either after the attack, and like all of us she wondered if Justin would come back and kill not only me but all of us since he screamed “I’m going to kill you” over and over again.
iii. And she was worried for Carter who like her watched it all from 10 feet away.
iv. A week after the attack, after being incredibly upset from what she saw and experienced, and what Carter saw and experienced, and seeing me hurt emotionally and physically Madison started having intense pains in her uterus. The pains worsened, to the point she was screaming from it, and she could hardly walk or function for long periods of each day.
v. And then she started bleeding. First it was a little, and then she started bleeding badly for a few days. The intense pain continued for a few days as we shuttled back and forth to her OBGYN Ð fearing the worst Ð hoping that our new baby was going to be ok Ð but knowing that our baby wouldn’t be.
vi. Unfortunately, she had a miscarriage.
vii. As one can expect, the loss of a baby is incredibly painful and emotional Ð and depressing. Since the attack, we’ve looked at the ultrasound pictures we had – wondering about the baby we lost – which makes us incredibly sad and incredibly angry.
viii. Prior to the attack, Madison had what her doctor has called “a perfectly normal pregnancy.” Her blood tests were great, her uterine lining was great, and the baby’s size was great. And Madison was feeling great too. We have asked her doctor whether the severe emotional trauma from the attack caused the miscarriage, and her doctor explicitly told us – and I’m quoting: “There is no other reason to explain it.”
ix. Mr. Gimelstob has been charged with an aggravated assault felony in this case – but he also caused the loss of our baby.
One would think that all of these injuries to everybody in our immediate family would adequately explain the effects on our lives – but they were just the start.
For many weeks our entire family – Madison and my three teenagers – were extremely frightened to leave our house.
To try protect all of us, I filed a TRO the day after my attack, and the judge immediately granted it. I then hired a process server to serve Mr. Gimelstob, but our anxiety and fear grew when Mr. Gimelstob evaded service three times while his car was parked outside of his house and Austin Ruth answered the intercom. Then the Sheriff’s Department attempted service three more times, and he evaded those attempts as well. As a courtesy, I had an attorney friend reach out to his divorce attorney Kris Royce – and also to Sean Holley – to accept service on his behalf – and both refused. That’s eight attempts to serve him in a month – and he evaded all of them.
Adding to our fears was the fact that Mr. Gimelstob knew where I lived Ð he had been to my house once six years before Ð and in case he forgot my address it was in my TRO filing. We all thought that only a complete psychopath would ambush and violently attack a man pushing his daughter in a stroller on Halloween in front of many other people Ð and we wondered what else he was capable of. w. As you know, when you file a TRO the form asks for Mr. Gimelstob’s home address, and that’s when I learned that Mr. Gimelstob lives one street over and only several hundred yards away from my ex-wife’s house where my kids spend half of their time. This meant that my kids were not only frightened to leave my house, but they were really terrified to leave my ex-wife’s house.
My kids, Madison, and I all thought the same thing: this was a guy who tried to kill me, had not succeeded, and was intentionally evading authorities so the TRO would not be effective Ð which we interpreted that he may come back and finish what he had started.
That was bad enough Ð but what made things even worse was when people read the many stories about the attack in various newspapers and reached out to me to tell me that the Halloween assault was not an isolated incident Ð and that Mr. Gimelstob had committed at least four other violent assaults and threats in the previous four years.
I read Ð as did my terrified kids Ð a TRO that in early 2016 his wife Cary Sinnott gave details that Mr. Gimelstob had stalked her, bugged her bedroom, assaulted her physically, assaulted her emotionally, and had tried to run her over with his car while their child sat in the backseat.
I was told that Mr. Gimelstob had threatened a friend of Cary’s named Kris Thabit in March of 2017 at a restaurant, and then in an eerily similar manner to Mr. Gimelstob’s assault on me Ð saw him again six months later, followed him out of a restaurant, pulled his phone of out his pocket, and punched him. The next day, worried about his jobs at the Tennis Channel and ATP, Mr. Gimelstob filed an optics-based TRO saying that Kris Thabit had followed him out of the restaurant. There’s video footage that shows the opposite, meaning Mr. Gimelstob had committed perjury.
I was told that in September 2017, Mr. Gimelstob was playing in a paddle tennis tournament in Venice, and after arguing a line call, Mr. Gimelstob called his opponent a “faggot” and a “girl,” jumped over the net, and started to attack and choke his opponent before being restrained by three people Ð including Austin Doerner, the number one paddle tennis player in the world.
a. Similar to his denials in my attack, and in the Kris Thabit attack, Mr. Gimelstob has also repeatedly denied this attack happened.
b. One of the witnesses to the attack told me to reach out to a man named Rich Humphries who had filmed most of this incident, and Mr. Humphries confirmed that he indeed had a video and that Mr. Gimelstob has tried to buy the video from him twice.
c. Mr. Humphries also promised to destroy the video if he’s subpoenaed because he was terrified of Mr. Gimelstob before the Halloween attack Ð and he fears for his life if his video would help send Mr. Gimelstob to prison.
Finally, I was also told that on September 27, 2017, Mr. Gimelstob threatened a woman named Mia Feil Ð following her out of their children’s preschool, and with Mr. Gimelstob’s son at his side, he screamed, “Tell your fucking husband I will break his neck if he ever writes another affidavit in my divorce.” Ms. Feil filed a police report with the LAPD, but then declined to pursue this matter because she was Ð and remains Ð extremely terrified of Mr. Gimelstob.
Including the attack on me, that’s five assaults in four years Ð all of which Mr. Gimelstob denies every took place. He may not have an official criminal record Ð but he very likely would if people were not terrified that he would come after them again.
Once we learned of these assaults, Madison and I and the kids spent a lot of time discussing whether we should hire private 24- hour security for everybody in our family. I talked with security consultants and former law enforcement officials about this, and they all told me that anybody who’s crazy enough to attack a man on Halloween and try to kill him while he was pushing his baby in a stroller would be very difficult to defend against.
We didn’t hire private security, but it’s more than four months later and my kids regularly ask me about him when they go out and what they should do if they see him.
As Your Honor considers the plea deal discussed this morning, I hope the court considers the sincerity of Mr. Gimelstob’s sudden admission of responsibility after strenuously denying it from the moment the attack occurred.
In considering Mr. Gimelstob’s sentence, I have a specific request for the court:
a. I would ask that Your Honor put Mr. Gimelstob on felony probation for three years and report to a probation officer during that time.
b. I’m am making this request for several reasons:
i. his very long history of violence – five previous attacks that he has denied and refused to take any responsibility for – despite trying to buy a video of one of them;
ii. my injuries and lasting concussion;
iii. my kids fear that he could harm them – particularly given their everyday proximity to them;
iv. the severe emotional and physical trauma my wife has suffered;
v. and whether he has the capacity or ability to comport what is being required w him
To date, Mr. Gimelstob has not earned any reduction in sentencing. However, sentencing him to felony probation – keeping him under the auspices of a probation officer – as well the court – would make him earn the proposed reduction in charges – and it would make me feel safer, my wife feel safer, and my kids feel safer.
Thank you very much for your time.
MADISON KAPLAN IMPACT STATEMENT
Thank you very much for letting me say a few words about Justin’s violent, unprovoked attack, and the emotional and physical trauma it caused me.
Thankfully my husband survived, but our unborn child did not. The level of anger and violence I witnessed was something I’ve never experienced or imagined.
I really hope you are able to enact a just punishment for him so he doesn’t keep up his trend of severely hurting people and their families, and threatening to kill people, with no consequences for himself.
This past Halloween Randy and I took our 2 year old daughter out to Trick or Treat for her 1st time. We were walking home from Trick or Treating at 6pm. It was all families and kids everywhere on the street.
We were pushing her stroller when someone jumped on Randy from behind – neither of us had even seen Justin coming and had no idea he was there.
He held Randy to the ground hitting him in the head with all his force over and over and over – Randy couldn’t even move or defend himself.
It was the scariest thing I have ever seen – someone totally unprovoked and premeditated – attacking someone with that much anger, hate, rage and strength.
At first I was stunned, and then figured it would go on a few seconds to make a point, but never fathomed Justin wouldn’t stop – I really think he was trying to kill Randy.
After I realized he wasn’t stopping it occurred to me I should get out my phone to video it (since it seemed so unbelievable it was even happening). It was already at least 30 seconds into the beating by the time I found my phone in the bottom of the stroller. All while our 2 year old is watching the whole attack from in her stroller a few feet away. I had moved the stroller a bit away since I feared for her safety from this crazed, angry person. But she could still see and hear everything. After recording for a few moments I could see that Justin still wasn’t going to stop and I started to panic. Randy couldn’t move at all and was trying to scream for help. I don’t even know how he was still conscious with a bigger, stronger, younger athlete straddling him holding him to the ground and furiously punching him in the head. Then I called 911. As I explained everything to the 911 operator Justin was still punching Randy repeatedly and yelling “I’m going to fucking kill you” over and over again and “don’t ever talk to my family again”.
Wow